


Playing The Game

by ZankieForLifeBaby



Category: Big Brother RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-01 19:51:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2785628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZankieForLifeBaby/pseuds/ZankieForLifeBaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Alternatively, I would take happy conspiracy theory fic where they’re facetiming and laughing at us for being sad :)</p><p>So I couldn’t make them wholly happy about us being sad because I felt like it made them look bad, but I did put an element of that in there because we know Zach loves chaos and turmoil. Also, I wanted to give them a good reason to do this. I hope that’s okay!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Plan

Zach smiled to himself as the live stream ended. He set his phone down on his desk and went to hug his brother and parents who had helped him with sound effects and just by being the live audience, since he could only get minimal feedback from the real audience online. His phone started buzzing on the desk and he lunged to reach it as his family was leaving his room to go to their own beds. It was 11 pm on a Tuesday night for goodness sake. 

Zach saw Frankie’s smiling face on his phone and he accepted the FaceTime quickly. Frankie was practically beaming at him from the screen. Zach returned the smile. Clearly Frankie thought the show had gone well. 

"So you watched? Did I do good?" Zach asked.

Frankie chuckled and replied, “Duh Rose! You can’t think I wasn’t going to watch you rip your shirt off and call me twice while I ignored the calls, did you?”

Zach smiled sheepishly, “Yeah, well…do you think I did okay?”

Frankie smiled bigger. “Yes, Rose. The way you said ‘please pick up’ kind of broke my heart. Good job baby! I’m guessing you haven’t seen twitter yet. They are absolutely freaking out. I kind of feel bad for them. This is actually really mean.” 

Zach shook his head a little and said, “I know, babe. It’s fun though! I love bullshitting them. They love it when I curve them. It’s fun to watch them dance. They literally react to everything whether it has meaning or not. Besides, we have to distance publicly if we’re gonna make this work out. MTV wants the story and they are offering us a pretty sweet deal to keep it under wraps. The fact that they want to stage this whole falling out that turns into us deciding to be together makes me a little uneasy though.”

“I know, love. I don’t particularly like it either, but that’s how reality TV works sometimes. We have to play the game a little. We can do it, and we’ll make it fun. They said that once the show starts that we can do whatever we want. So, we’ll control the story line. I got Ariana’s people to check the contract to make sure we aren’t being played by loopholes and they say it’s on the up and up,” Frankie said.

Zach sighed and closed his eyes for a second. Frankie was thinking about how beautiful his man was. He missed him so much and wanted nothing more than to hold him right now. 

MTV had offered them a chance to do their own show with Zach moving to New York. They were going to film a pilot over New Year’s Eve when Zach came to visit. The plot included them being in a not so great space and finally seeing each other after almost 2 months. The pilot would chronicle them reconnecting and end with a New Year’s Eve kiss, per the producers/executives at MTV. The rest of the show would follow them together in New York—if MTV liked the pilot. He and Zach had agreed this was their best offer and so they’d agreed to stage a break of sorts. They decided they wanted to have fun with it. Their fanbase was so rabid that they read a million things into a single like or favorite. They weren’t going to actually tell the fans that there had been a falling out, but they’d imply it. Zach’s livestream was the first step. There wasn’t really a second step, except to avoid each other on social media and keep their interactions private.

Zach was kind of enjoying the game they were playing. As long as Frankie was cool, he had no problem toying with the fans. Frankie, on the other hand, had a few more misgivings. However, Zach’s joy was kind of infectious. Zach was like an excited puppy. He’d get really hyped over something and then right when it was about to go too far (or already had) he would come back with this pathetic look that you couldn’t help but forgive him. Frankie absolutely loved him. He couldn’t help it. Even when Zach was unbelievably frustrating, Frankie found himself thinking about how much he loved him. 

Zach stayed on the Facetime, but turned to look at his computer. Frankie could make out the layout of twitter. Zach was clearly scrolling through his mentions. Zach was chuckling a little bit and laughed pretty hard at a few tweets. Zach turned back to Frankie after a couple of minutes and said, “Man, they really are losing it. This is so exciting. It’s like when I staged that fight with Caleb. That was so much fun!” Frankie smiled at him. He couldn’t help but be excited about Zach being so excited.

Frankie was tired. Ariana was in town and he’d just filmed himself doing his runway walk. He had to finish the video and upload it. He wanted to get it done tonight. He smiled softly at Zach who had closed his computer and was looking only at him now. “It’ll be perfect babe. I promise,” Zach said.

Frankie smiled at Zach again. He nodded his head in agreement. Then he started explaining the video he’d made and held the phone to his computer so Zach could see some of it. Zach laughed. Frankie loved Zach’s laugh. Ari came over and took the phone from Frankie. Ari walked away berating Zach for having a livestream during the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Frankie knew she was kidding and he could hear Zach laugh and his voice changed to that tone he used to seek forgiveness. Frankie shook his head a little in amusement and worked on his video for a while until Ari brought his phone back.

Zach was rubbing his eyes. He said, “I should sleep. I have to pack tomorrow. I’m stoked for Cali, but I wish you were gonna be there too.”

Frankie smiled and said, “Yeah, baby, I know. You’ll have fun. NOH8 is great! I can’t wait to see you looking all sexy with some duct tape on your mouth. I can totally get down with that idea.” He winked at Zach and Zach blushed deeply.

“You’re too much, Frankie,” Zach said, “But you know I love it. I love you Frankstar. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Stay off twitter and instagram! Don’t let the fans suck you in.”

Frankie giggled and said, “Aye, Aye, Sir.” Frankie winked at Zach and continued, “I love you too baby—my little tiger. Can’t wait to see your face again tomorrow, even if it’s only through the power of technology. Goodnight my love!”

“Goodnight babe. Sweet dreams,” Zach replied and ended the Facetime.

They both slept well that night.

****************** 

Wednesday was fairly busy for Frankie. Even though it was his day off, he had an interview with HLN, and of course, his sister was still in town. So Frankie spent some more time with her and generally avoided social media for the day. To be honest, he was mildly amused at some of the dismay last night, but the little he’d seen today consisted of a lot of depression he didn’t want to deal with. So he just did his own thing. 

Shortly after the HLN interview, Zach called. Frankie answered brightly, “Hello handsome!”

Zach laughed. Zach said, “Your interview was great! I’m so proud of you. I know I’m a broken record, but you are the funniest and smartest person I know.” Frankie smiled. He couldn’t help it. It didn’t matter how many times Zach said it, he couldn’t get enough of hearing Zach say those words. 

Frankie answered, “Thanks, love. How are you today? Have you started packing?”

“I’m doing pretty good. I am on my way to hang out with Tanner. You remember me telling you about him, right?” Zach asked. 

“Yeah,” Frankie answered, “What are you going to do?” 

“I think I’m going to play Sawagoo for him. He wants to hear it and I want to see his reaction,” Zach said.

“That sounds great Zach! Don’t forget to pack! I noticed you conveniently avoided answering that question. I know that means no. Take some of the new clothes I helped you pick out. You’ll look sexy as hell and I might have to fly myself to California to get a piece of you,” Frankie joked.

Zach laughed. “Okay, I will definitely do that,” Zach said. His voice dropped a little as he continued, “Have you, um, checked twitter or anything today?”

Frankie took a deep breath then said, “Yeah, it’s not pretty. I feel bad now. I didn’t think it’d last this long. They’ve always bounced back pretty quick in the past. I got a lot of messages imploring me to talk to you and that sort of thing.”

“I know! I’m kind of surprised. I thought for sure that they’d be over it by morning. Do you think it’s a big deal if I let Tanner tweet something? Like maybe just attach the zankie hashtag to a tweet? Maybe it’ll give them something? I don’t know, I just feel a little guilty now,” Zach finished.

Frankie replied, “Sure. I don’t see why not.”

Zach said, “Cool.”

The conversation stalled for a bit. Neither of them knew where to go next, but the discussion of their fans and whatever mood they were in on twitter wasn’t really what they wanted to talk about. It was; however, all they saw online.

Frankie changed the subject first, “So, you’re flying tomorrow and filming the next day, right?”

“Yeah! I’m excited. I get to see some people again and it’ll be fun. I think it’ll be less chaotic without all the other houseguests trying to film as well!” Zach said, happily.

“I’m so happy for you! The NOH8 shoot is on Saturday?” Frankie asked.

“Yeah. I’m a little nervous. I don’t want to mess it up. This is so important to so many people. It’s important to me too. I hope everything goes well,” Zach said.

“I’m so proud of you for this, Zachary! You’ll do great baby! They will take care of you. Trust me, I know. You’ll look stunning, I’m sure of it. No one could look hotter than you with some duct tape on their mouth. I’m 100% positive I won’t be able to handle it. Send me a snapchat. Maybe I’ll send you a good one back,” Frankie said, his voice was playful. Zach could practically hear the wink at the end of that statement.

Zach blushed and said, “Fraaankiieeee. Well, I just got to Tanner’s place. I’ll Facetime you later. Okay, babe?”

“Yes, please,” Frankie said, “I love you.”

“I love you too. Talk to you soon!” Zach said and hung up the phone.

Zach tried to stay off social media after that. He hung out with Tanner and was having a good time. He mentioned that maybe Tanner should tweet out something with a little zankie in it so that the fans wouldn’t be too upset. Tanner did it, but it didn’t seem to make a difference with the fandom. Zach figured he couldn’t do much else, so he put it out of his mind.

Frankie continued on with his day. He and Doug made a Starbucks run and he got ready to take his mom out to see Phantom of the Opera that night. He did his best to forget about social media and he did a pretty good job too. He sent Zach a snapchat of him at Phantom with Mommy and Zach sent back a pic of him and Tanner. Zach also sent a picture of himself half undressed in the bathroom—again. Frankie made a mental note to return the favor later that night.


	2. Where We Are Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I pick up right were I left off in the first part! Pretty much more of the same. I hope that pleases those of you who asked for more! I don’t know if I’ll write a third part or not. Again, this is based off a prompt that’s given at the beginning of the first part.
> 
> Thanks for reading! ❤

Frankie and Mommy returned home pretty late that night. They’d gone out to get dessert after the show and they’d had a fabulous time. They talked about just about everything that was going on with both of them. They talked at length about Zach moving to New York. Zach was, of course, coming for New Year’s Eve, but he’d only be staying a few days. Then he would return home to pack before he’d be moving around mid-January. Zach had promised his family he would be around for Hanukah and after that he was going to take some extra time to spend with Peyton in January before he officially located in New York.

Frankie talked animatedly with his mother about all of his plans once Zach was finally in New York. He couldn’t wait to show him a number of his favorite things about New York. Mostly, however, Frankie talked repeatedly about how happy he was that Zach would be there when he got home everyday. He’d get to see him daily and Frankie couldn’t stop thinking about the time they’d spent practically glued to each other’s sides while in the Big Brother house. Frankie was eager to recapture that energy and see where that took them now that everything was out in the open.

Joan talked a little about Nonna and how she was continuing to readjust to life without Grandpa. She’d done really well and was certainly keeping herself busy. Frankie was generally just amazed at Nonna’s strength, but this isn’t really a new things. They talked about Ari for a little bit. She was working so hard lately in preparation for her tour and they were absolutely thrilled for her. She was performing at Jingle Ball in Madison Square Garden on Friday and they were both going to be there to cheer her on.

Frankie was reflecting on his night and had just finished changing. He was sitting on the edge of his bed when his phone started buzzing. He reached for it across the bed and saw Zach’s face requesting a FaceTime. Frankie smiled as he accepted the call.

“Franklin! Dude, it’s late! I texted you a little while ago, you didn’t answer me. I thought maybe you’d gone to bed before talking to me,” Zach said.

Frankie shook his head and said, “Rose, you know I wouldn’t do that. I was just out really late. Mommy and I had a great time chatting over dessert. I’m pretty sure we shut the place down. Sorry about the texts, I haven’t seen them yet,” Frankie replied.

“No worries. I just wanted to say goodnight. I’m exhausted. I had a great time with Tanner though. He loved Sawagoo! I’m so pumped up for this song! I wish I could release it now. The anticipation is killing me!” Zach answered. Frankie could tell he was getting worked up. He was practically yelling the last sentence. His Zach Attack was showing.

Frankie smirked at him and said, “Rose, you are the cutest thing when you’re excited! I’m glad Tanner liked Sawagoo too! You already know I love it, but it’s nice to hear your friends like it too. By the way, when am I getting my T-shirt?” Frankie asked with his head cocked to the side.

“You were serious? You want one of my shirts?” Zach asked.

“ROSE! I want anything and everything that has to do with you. Get me one. I want to wear it after we get through this stuff for MTV and blow everyone’s minds. It’ll be great! We can walk through New York wearing each other’s shirts and holding hands. It’ll be adorable,” Frankie explained.

“Perfect!” Zach said, grinning at Frankie. Frankie was looking at his eyes through the little screen on his phone and Frankie would swear he could feel the heart eyes from Florida in his room. The way Zach looked at him was indescribable and Frankie hoped it would never end.

Frankie started fanning himself with his hand and said in his best Clara Belle Dupree voice, “Why Zachary, I do declare that picture you sent me of you in the bathroom this evening was one of the hottest things I’d ever seen. You’re such a handsome young man. I’m pretty sure you could do so many things to help out a poor woman in need. You know, my husband is out of town. I could really use some help right now.”

Zach was cracking up, but he played along. “Oh? Really? Well I think that I could certainly help you in exchange for a little bit of your time.” Zach wiggled his eyebrows.

Clara Belle responded, “Oh my! Is it hot in here or is that just me? I think I need you to come fix my air conditioner. I’m sure we could work out a payment plan. You know, I’m very good at paying all of my debts, one way or another.” Frankie gave Zach an exaggerated wink. Zach was doubled over with laughter at this point.

Frankie broke character and said, “Seriously, Zach. You need to get your hot ass back to New York. I need you.”

Zach stopped laughing and returned Frankie’s stare. Frankie was biting his lip and looking intently at Zach. It drove Zach crazy when Frankie would bite his lip. It drew all of Zach’s attention to Frankie’s lips and then all Zach could think about was Frankie’s mouth all over his body the last time he was in New York.

Zach sighed and said, “Soon, babe. Soon. I need you too. I think about you, about us, all the time. I can’t wait to be by your side.”

Frankie blew a kiss to Zach. Zach smiled. Frankie said, “We should sleep. You have a flight early tomorrow, right? You are packed, aren’t you?”

“Yes and yes,” Zach answered, “Oh! By the way, you might want to avoid twitter tomorrow.”

Frankie blinked at him. He was a little confused. Frankie said, “but I’m already avoiding all social media, why did you need to bring it up again?”

Zach shook his head a little and said, “well, I unfollowed someone on twitter and it hasn’t really gotten out yet, but I know it will. When it does, twitter is going to go crazy, in a good way for the most part, but I’m not sure how the person I unfollowed will respond.”

“Why the secrecy in those statements, Zach? I know exactly who you’re talking about. But, you are right, twitter might be a disaster tomorrow. I will definitely stay away. I don’t want to get involved,” Frankie said.

Zach nodded at him as he talked. Zach said, “Right. I don’t want you to get dragged into this either. It’ll blow over pretty quickly, I hope. Anyways, I really should sleep. I won’t get much sleep as it is right now. So I better get some now.” Zach smiled weakly. Zach wished he could reach through the screen and wrap his arms around Frankie. He needed to hold Frankie. Frankie made everything better and Zach felt so at peace when he got to be with Frankie. He could use some of that right now in the flurry of a trip to Cali and all of the sadness that was overwhelming his twitter timeline and mentions.

Frankie smiled brightly at Zach. It was like Frankie knew exactly what Zach needed and he was determined to cheer him up. “Okay baby. You get some beauty rest you gorgeous, hot, ridiculously dressed man of mine,” Frankie said with a wink. “I love you more than anything and we won’t be apart for that much longer. Have a safe flight and I will talk to you tomorrow. Check your phone later. I still owe you a snap—a hot one,” he continued with a smirk at the end.

Zach beamed at Frankie. It was crazy how Frankie could instantly brighten Zach’s mood. Frankie literally shined and Zach was perfectly content to catch some of the reflections of Frankie’s light and mirror it back to him. Zach replied, “You’re too much Frankie. I’m not that great, but I do love you more.”

Frankie scoffed and said, “I will not hear either of those things. You are literally amazing and I love you more. It’s not even close.”

Zach blushed and said, “I know it’s not close! I love you so much more, it is ridiculous.”

“Agree to disagree?” Frankie asked, chuckling.

“Okay, I guess,” Zach said in a fake tone trying to convey begrudging, but his 1000-watt smile betrayed his true feelings. “I can’t wait for my snap babe. Make it a good one. It has to get me through this flight to California. Give me something good to daydream about,” Zach said playfully with a wink.

“Oh, don’t worry baby. I know what my good boy likes,” Frankie said. Frankie smirked at Zach. Zach could feel himself getting turned on and groaned at Frankie. It was going too far. Zach didn’t have time to play with Frankie, but Frankie was making it hard—literally.

Zach blushed and said, “Okay, babe. I’ll text you tomorrow. Hopefully we can talk in the evening even though we’ll have this horrible time difference.”

“Okay love. Sweet dreams. I love you Zachary,” Frankie said. 

“I love you too, Franklin,” Zach said with a smile. 

They blew respective kisses to each other and each lay down with their phones on the opposite pillow. Zach and Frankie sighed at the same time. Even states away, they were so in sync.

“Goodnight, my love,” Frankie whispered.

“Goodnight, boyfriend,” Zach replied. Zach disconnected the FaceTime. 

Zach rolled over and fell asleep quickly. He was exhausted after packing and just thinking about all of his travel tomorrow was a little overwhelming. Frankie lay in bed for a minute thinking about Zach. He was craving his touch and wanted him to be there more than anything else he wanted in the world. A few minutes later he got up and took his shirt off. He pulled his briefs down low on his hips and lay back in bed. He angled the camera on his phone so that he could capture all of his bare chest and abdomen. He looked at the camera with a sultry look. When he got a picture he liked he captioned it, “I want you.” And added a large version of the double heart emoji. He sent the snap and rolled over to try to sleep despite the images of Zach that were floating in his mind, particularly that hot snap he’d sent earlier tonight.

***************

Zach had been right, twitter was crazier the next day. Zankie fans were ecstatic, others were angry. Zach woke up to some interesting tweets. He’d tried to avoid twitter, but he gave in eventually. He chose to respond to some fans and set the record straight. He was satisfied. Zach felt like he needed one more tweet to seal the deal, so he sent one out.

“@ranceypants: It’s real Rose”

Zach was beyond proud of that tweet. Everyone knew what it referred to after the scene he’d created on twitter, but he’d also given a nod to Frankie. That made him extremely satisfied.

He also happened to run across a tweet about Frankie that he couldn’t pass up. It was so sweet and described Frankie so well. So, he faved it. Twitter did its usual thing. He felt a little guilty for favoriting the tweet since he wasn’t supposed to fuel any zankie drama. Then again, when did Zach ever do what he was supposed to? Frankie texted him after he saw twitter react to it. Frankie thought it was funny.

He left twitter alone after that. His flight to California was otherwise uneventful.

After spending time on twitter, he was busy getting ready to go out with Rachel Reilly that night. He was excited to spend more time with her. He’d been bummed he had to miss her finale party and he really did like her. She was funny and brash. They got along well.

Frankie stayed busy on Thursday. He slept in a little later. Ariana was still in town, so he spent some more time with her. The really exciting part of the day came later, when Meghan Trainor came to see him in Rock of Ages. He was so excited she had come to see him. He absolutely had the best time with her at the AMAs. She came backstage and they took lots of pictures. He’d be seeing her tomorrow as well for Billboard’s Women in Music event.

Frankie called Zach after he got home. He was exhausted and needed to go to bed early in preparation for the big day tomorrow. Zach was out with Rachel at the time, but he took a little time to talk to him in a corner. He wanted to say goodnight at the very least. Frankie told Zach all about how Meghan Trainor came to see his show and all the fun they had after the show. Zach was a little jealous. He wanted to be spending time with Frankie, but he knew he couldn’t. At least he got to hang out with Rachel again tonight, but he missed Frankie. Frankie always made things more fun. He had another cameo on The Bold & The Beautiful to film tomorrow. He was excited about that. He wasn’t even nervous this time. He figured he must be getting used to the spotlight and everything at this point.

Zach couldn’t turn Frankie down when he asked if he could practice the speech he had written to honor Ariana the next day. Zach loved it. Frankie was really pleased that Zach seemed to like it so much. He was so proud of Ari and he wanted to do her justice. Zach reassured him that everyone would love it.

As they were saying goodnight, Zach interrupted the normal flow of their goodnight, which had kind of become routine at this point after being apart for so long.

“Hey, Frankie,” Zach said softly.

Frankie said, “Yeah, baby?”

“I just want you to know that I love you for everything that you are. I know that we went through some rough spots since we came out of the house. There were certain things that I had to figure out. There were definite bumps in the road involving all of those trials and tribulations. I just wanted to say, I’m so glad we ended up where we are now. I know that I wanted to play this game with the fans and let them just imagine whatever they wanted after that live stream and basically the radio silence that we’re broadcasting about one another, but it is actually a lot harder than I thought. I can’t wait to be open with them,” Zach said.

“Oh, baby. You are the sweetest thing ever. We’ll have so much fun together in NYC. I can’t wait to walk down the street and hold your hand while stealing kisses without a care in the world. It’ll be perfect, I promise!” Frankie reassured Zach.

Zach smiled and said, “Thanks babe. I better go. Rachel is starting to yell my name and you know she won’t stop until she gets what she wants! I love you, so much. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. You’ll kill your speech! I can’t wait to see video of it later and hear all about the event. Tell Taylor Swift I love her!”

“You’re too much, Zachary! I will definitely talk to you tomorrow and I will consider whether or not I want to tell Taylor that MY boyfriend is in love with her!” Frankie joked.

Zach laughed and it made Frankie smile. His heart felt ten times lighter when Zach was laughing. “I love you too, Rose,” Frankie said, “Goodnight. Have fun! Good luck on B&B tomorrow! I’ll text you.”

“Goodnight babe!” Zach said.

Frankie fell asleep quickly. He was so exhausted. Zach stayed out for a few more hours. He had a good time with Rachel and a few people from B&B. He did spend a lot of time thinking about Frankie though. He just wanted to share this with him. He wanted to share every experience with Frankie. He felt like he needed Frankie by his side at all times. When he finally made it back to the hotel he collapsed on his bed. He was too tired to change. He just wanted to sleep and wake up for his call time at B&B. He had an alarm set, but he knew Lindsay would keep him on track. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent a text to Frankie that simply said: “I miss you.” He knew Frankie was asleep, so he rolled over and allowed his subconscious to overwhelm him with thoughts of Frankie that would guide his dreams that night.

**Author's Note:**

> I originally intended this to be a one-shot. It will probably remain that way unless I get requests to continue it.


End file.
